You can claim Council Tax Reduction if you are on a low income and pay Council Tax.
If you’ve ever wondered what Council Tax Reduction is and who can apply for it, the short video below explain this.
Details of how to apply are listed in the next section.
You can get Council Tax Reduction in addition to other Council Tax Discounts
There are no changes to our Council Tax Reduction scheme from 1st April 2025, other than the inflation increase to the income bands. For more information on the income bands, please see ‘ How is Council Tax Reduction worked out?’ in the section below.
If you are over pension age any support you receive will be based on the National Scheme. If you have capital over £16,000 you will not be entitled to any Council Tax Reduction unless you get Guarantee Pension Credit.
From The 1st April 2019 Council Tax Reduction, for customer of Working age , is based on a banded scheme. This means that depending on your income your household you will fall into a band that will mean that your Council Tax Reduction will be either 100%, 80%, 60%, 40% or 0% of your Council Tax. the details below show the income bands from 1.4.25.
| Band | % | Single | Couple | Family +1 | Family +2 |
| 1 | 100 | £0-£106.21 | £0–£156.85 | £0 – £219.84 | £0 – £281.58 |
| 2 | 80 | £106.22 – £169.18 | £156.86–£219.84 | £219.85–£281.58 | £281.59- £344.57 |
| 3 | 60 | £169.19-£232.19 | £219.85- £281.58 | £281.59-£344.57 | £344.58–£407.57 |
| 4 | 40 | £232.20–£296.40 | £281.59- £332.23 | £344.58- £407.57 | £407.58- £470.56 |
The following amount will be deducted from your income to obtain a net figure that will be used in the calculation.
- Earnings disregard £25.00
- Disabled Living allowance
- Personal independence payments
- Employment and support – support component or LCWRA element if you get Universal credit
- Disability premium
- Enhanced disability premium
- Severe Disability premium
- Disabled child premium
- Carers allowance or Carers Element if you get Universal credit
- Child Benefit
- Child maintenance
- Childcare costs (conditions apply)
- War Pensions
There are no deductions for non dependants living with you.
If you are claiming Universal credit we will take into account the Standard element, the Child element and the Limited capability for work element. We will also take into account any unearned and earned income Universal Credit tell us about. We will deduct £25.00 from the earnings. As we will not take into account the Carer element and Childcare element we will not disregard Childcare costs of Carers allowance.
Unless there are exceptional circumstances, if you are self-employed and have been trading for more than year, we will assume your weekly earnings are national living wage multiplied by 35 hours. If you are a lone parent we will assume earnings of national living wage multiplied by 16 hours.
If you or your partner, together or separately, have capital, savings and investments which add up to more than £6000 you will not be entitled to any support from the scheme. You will have to pay the full amount of Council Tax for your property.